Titans, Falcons get physical in Georgia scrimmage

Rookie running back Bishop Stankey (20) tries to shake off an Atlanta Falcon defensive player during

Titans, Falcons get physical in Georgia scrimmage

Tennessee Titans wide receiver Isiah Williams (11), a second year player from Maryland, picks up yards after making a reception in Monday's scrimmage at Flowery Branch, Ga. (Titans photo by Domm Jones)

By TERRY McCORMICKtitaninsider.com

Seeing a different color jersey to go against brought out some competiveness in the Tennessee Titans as they traveled to Flowery Branch, Ga., on Monday for a joint practice with the Atlanta Falcons.

There was a little fracas early in the proceedings with Titans cornerbacks Coty Sensabaugh and Tommie Campbell getting involved against the Falcons. But that was broken up and it was back to the business at hand.

Coach Ken Whisenhunt spent most of his day watching over the Titans offense and seeing how far it has progressed in camp with Jake Locker at the helm.

“I thought he did well,” Whisenhunt said of Locker moving the offense. “He moved in the pocket well and made some good throws. Some of the protection things, we’ve got to get better on as a group, but he made some big plays. He made some good throws from the pocket with pressure on him that were big plays.”

Locker connected on some deep throws to Justin Hunter and Kendall Wright during the course of practice.

“I thought we did a good job. We need to clean up a few things here and there. … For the most part we took advantage of an opportunity to get the ball down the field a little bit and we made some plays,” Locker said it was good to go against some different looks and have some success against it. It also can be used now as a learning tool for future reference.

“It was fun. It was high intensity and it was a good opportunity to go against some looks we hadn’t seen yet. It’ll be awesome to go back and look at the tape and see what we saw and hopefully, we’ll be a little more prepared for them when them throughout the course of the season,” Locker said.

The quarterback also was high on the way Hunter performed, something that has shown up more consistently in camp thus far.

“I think anybody that’s watched our practices so far and watched our training camp can see he’s playing with more confidence and understanding what he’s doing, and I think he’s starting to believe how good he really is,” Locker said.

The only real down side to Locker’s day wasn’t of his own making. Whisenhunt was upset that Falcons defensive end Osi Umenyiora came in on a rush and hit Locker’s arm, knocking the ball out. Touching the quarterback is off limits in such drills.

Levitre does some work

Guard Andy Levitre, activated on Sunday from the non-football injury list, was able to make the trip and do some work for the Titans against the Falcons. While that might come as a surprise to some, given Levitre had an appendectomy on July 24, it does not surprise Ken Whisenhunt.

“Andy said he wanted to come and do this. That was his goal. That was ahead of what some people predicted. We didn’t think that. We thought he could do it, and he did. It was good to see him out there,” Whisenhunt said.

“He grabbed his arm and hit his hand. Osi came up and apologized. He just said his bad. He knows he can’t do that,” Whisenhunt said.

Kicking competition

For now, it appears that undrafted rookie Travis Coons might have put himself in the driver’s seat in a kicking competition that is far from over.

Coons was perfect on five field goal attempts against the Falcons on Monday, while his chief competition, Maikon Bonani, was 4-of-5, missing on a 46-yard attempt.

“The real test is gonna be a game. Something will come up in one of these games where we’ll get a good assessment,” Whisenhunt said.

Of Coons’ effort, the coach added, “For a young guy, he’s pretty consistent, but we’ve got to see what he can do in a game. He’s still got to get better in his approach on kickoffs, but it’s something he’s working on.”

Terry McCormick is the prime writer for titansinsider.com and writes for 7/24 sports

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